The countries that do not have natural resources such as petroleum and natural gas available, may achieve sustainable growth and be successful only if they pool efforts to build working institutions. This is what President Rosen Plevneliev said at the opening ceremony of the European Commission’s initiative “Dialogue with the citizens” in the Kunev Center of the Angel Kunchev University in Russe. The topic of the debate is “the future of Europe” and Frans Timmermans, first vice-president of the European Commission and Robert-Marius Kazanciuc, Romanian justice minister, attended the debate.
“In the transition period Bulgaria achieved a lot. However, we are aware that we are not yet where we would like to be and where the Bulgarian public expects us to be. The citizens that demand a change in the work of the institutions have given us proof of that more than once,” the Head of State said. Rosen Plevneliev highlighted that for the first time in the past 25 years not only the need of reforms in the judiciary has been acknowledged, but also the Bulgarian government considers this reform a basic priority in its governance program.
“The positive aspect is that the willingness for change is shared by the majority of the people employed in the judiciary and the Prosecutor’s Office and this is a guarantee of the sustainability of the process of conducting reforms,” the President highlighted and called on for having these efforts supported not only by the Assembly deputies, but also by the civil society.
Rosen Plevneliev was adamant that the Mechanism for Cooperation and Assessment regarding the Bulgarian judiciary is not applied, so as to placate Brussels but so as to meet the public expectations for fair law administration. “For us the European Commission is a partner in the actions taken to build working and transparent institutions,” the Head of State emphasized.
Our country will continue to work to ensure that we soon enter the Schengen zone, President Plevneliev further said. In the Head of State’s words, Bulgaria and Romania achieve good results while guarding the external EU borders and this has been acknowledged more than once by the European institutions. “We have already voiced our support for the step-by-step Schengen accession and first this should happen with our airports and ports,” the President added. “We are fulfilling our commitments along the borders well and I am sure that the member states will soon appreciate that,” the Head of State said at the debate.
The President voiced gratitude to Frans Timmermans, first vice-president of the European Commission for the opportunity provided to the Bulgarian citizens to become active participants in the debate on the future of Europe and to address their questions and proposals directly to the European Commission.
If the rules are not valid for all, we will find it difficult to ensure well-being for all, Robert-Marius Kazanciuc, Romanian justice minister said, who added that the expansion of the cross-border cooperation between Bulgaria and Romania was successful.
Creating a Europe that would guarantee economic stability and provide opportunities for personality development of every citizen lies at the basis of the debate in the European countries today, Frans Timmermans, first vice-president of the European Commission said. He emphasized that the European countries have made the decision to share their fate and only together could they define their own future.
Almost 800 citizens from Bulgaria and Romania took part in the discussion.